Category Archives: Star Wars

Topps who is celebrating the generational culmination of the Star Wars saga with a commemorative set highlighting some of the greatest moments from a galaxy far away. The Topps Star Wars Saga set features characters and iconic scenes from the original trilogy, prequels and newest films concluding with Episode IX. Topps will only bring out three new Star Wars Galactic Moment cards each week, as they countdown to Episode IX.

We’ve now left Star Wars: A New Hope behind and moved onto second week of cards from cards The Empire Strikes Back.

Many had said it was Paul Shipper behind the Star Wars Celebration Character Banner, I was skeptical as it didn’t match his style, so I did a bit of digging and found it was done by Cristiano Siqueira, a renowned vector illustrator from São Paulo, Brasil.

Here’s what he had to say about it on Facebook page.

“Very proud to finally be able to share this work with you!
I spent a good part of the last year second semester working on these Star Wars characters for Lucas Film. This work will be the key art of the “Star Wars Celebration 2019”, a big Star Wars fan event that happens in Chicago, at April this year.”

Punch it! Chewie!! …The Oscar nominations for the 91st annual Academy Awards have been announced at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Amongst the nominees was Solo: A Star Wars Story by Ron Howard. It has been nominated for a Visual Effects Oscar, done as always, by the folks at Industrial Light & Magic, the revolutionary visual effects company founded by the visionary George Lucas to help bring the original “Star Wars” galaxy to life. ILM have recently started sharing some awesome ‘behind-the-magic’ video’s on how they created the work for “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”

These ‘Behind the Magic’ clips demonstrates how the ILM artists layered together live-action and computer-generated elements to create over 1,800 separate visual effects shots Ron Howard needed for the film.

Rob Bredow, Head of Industrial Light & Magic, was the Visual Effects Supervisor and Co-Producer on Solo: A Star Wars Story. He helped tell the story of the film, creating these grounded visuals with such a unique shooting style with the help of the 627 credited artists who worked on the project with him.

So what are the odds of Solo: Star Wars Story winning? …As Han would say, ‘Never tell me the odds’ but seriously the odds for them winning the Best Visual Effects is actually not bad. With that said, they are up against a real heavyweight and Odds-On favourite, Avengers: Infinity War which has some pretty outstanding effects, so would you bet the Falcon in a game of Sabacc in Solo winning?

Topps who is celebrating the generational culmination of the Star Wars saga with a commemorative set highlighting some of the greatest moments from a galaxy far away. The Topps Star Wars Saga set features characters and iconic scenes from the original trilogy, prequels and newest films concluding with Episode IX. Topps will only bring out three new Star Wars Galactic Moment cards each week, as they countdown to Episode IX.

We’ve now left Star Wars: A New Hope behind and moved onto cards from The Empire Strikes Back for week 7.

Delilah Dawson has revealed on Twitter a new book, which she writing, “THE SKYWALKER SAGA is going to be the most exquisitely bound Star Wars storybook you can imagine, with gorgeous art by Brian Rood retelling Episodes I through VIII through the eyes of the Skywalkers themselves. We’re talking SPACE FAIRYTALE style

The Skywalker Saga Book Cover by Delilah Dawson

Delilah Dawson said:“Writing this book was a revelation for me as a lifelong Star Wars fan. Watching the movies in order– closely and critically– on repeat– and seeing the themes, choices, words, and destinies of Anakin, Luke, Leia, Ben, and Rey ripple down… y’all, I cried. A lot.

My darlings, there are no spoilers here. I watched the same movies you did. I don’t have secret information. Inheritance doesn’t have to rely on blood. Ben Solo is a product of his mother, his mentor, his grandfather. Rey is called by Luke’s saber. That’s enough for me.”

It looks like she was going to announce it on the Star Wars Show which doesn’t re-start until next week, but Delilah couldn’t wait!

What is THE SKYWALKER SAGA, you might ask?*waves a hand*I can't tell you until next week. But it's pretty. pic.twitter.com/EdtT4CwEDG

For #TenThings today, let’s talk about WRITING IP, which stands for intellectual property, which is stuff like STAR WARS. Because guess what? It’s not about how much you love the property. I mean, it *is* that… but so much more.

My usual disclaimer applies: YMMV, my way is not the only way, everyone’s journey is different. There will always be outliers, but I can’t teach you how to be one. This advice is intended for new writers in the realm of traditional publishing. I can’t give you George Lucas’s #.

1. The key to writing something like Star Wars = You need 5-10 years of a solid traditional writing career with a reputation for writing fast and well, hitting deadlines, keeping secrets, and being easy to work with. There is no way around it.

1.5 Writing IP is like: I mean, let’s say you LOOOOVE PLANES. Nobody loves planes as much as you do! That doesn’t mean someone is going to hand you the keys and tell you to go nuts living your dream. You have to have training, experience, and ultimate trust, first.

2. Not only do you need several of your own books in print, but if you want to write for big IP like STAR WARS, it helps if you start with smaller properties and build up your resume. My first was Shadowman for Kindle Worlds, then Adventure Time, Labyrinth, Hellboy, X-Files…

2.5 You need practice writing IP, and you need to get your name out there with editors. You need to become a known quantity. When they’re brainstorming in a meeting, your name should pop up. It helps if your genre and author brand are aligned with that property’s direction.

3. What about your writing craft? How can you bulk up to write IP? You’ve got to nail worldbuilding and character immediately and so well that uberfans feel immersed and like they’re with their favorite characters. So you need to know that world, those characters, intimately.

3.5 Which you learn to do by… inventing and writing your own worlds! Writing for an IP is a lot like writing the second book in your own series. You know the world, you know the characters, so you establish the scene and get right down to business.

4. To succeed at writing IP, you need to look at constraints, limits, and rules and *not* think UGH I’M A WILD STALLION; I DO WHAT I WANT. You must look at the parameters you’re given and grin, thinking OH THERE IS SO MUCH I CAN DO HERE TO MAKE THIS MY OWN. You have to play well.

5. To write IP well, you have to be ready for big, painful changes to come down from the property and editors– changes to your outline, to your story, during revisions. And instead of thinking OMG THEY KILLED MY BABY, you must think, OK, I CAN FIX THAT. I CAN MAKE IT GREAT.

6. To write IP well, you must suck up your ego. If they say, “This line doesn’t sound like that character,” you can’t bristle and disagree. You have to take their criticism and fix it. You haven’t lived until you’ve crashed Word with 17 peoples’ in-line comments on your book.

7. Not only that, but if you’re going to write IP, you’d better have a thick skin. If folks don’t like your creator-owned books, it’s pretty easy to avoid bad reviews. But if certain fans don’t like your IP stuff, the attacks can be brutal. There’s always someone who hates it.

8. There’s always the chance that after writing for a certain property, you might not like it as much after the experience. You go from seeing the beautiful facade of a magical world to… scrubbing its toilets. I feel so lucky– I still love all mine, but I’ve heard stories.

9. Am I making it sound like writing IP is scary, difficult, and painful? GOOD. If just reading about it scares you off, the actual experience is probably not gonna be your bag. Writing IP is a very specific skill. That’s why it takes so much time + experience to get to do it.

10. But the truth = being part of an IP world that means so much to you– like Star Wars does for me– is one of the most rewarding creative experience of my life. My editors, everyone at @DelReyStarWars, the other SW writers: We’re a family. And I got to write canon. Life goal!

10.5. So I can totally understand why anyone would want to write official stories for a fandom they love. The map to get here is a rocky one, and it starts with that thread I did on literary agents. Write a great book, get an agent, sell it to a Big 5 publisher, and aim for Batuu.

So that’s today’s EXTREMELY APROPOS #TenThings thread on WRITING IP. If you have an ungoogleable question, feel free to ask! If you dig my advice, please pick up one of my books or comics (IP or creator-owned!), all of which are at http://whimsydark.com. Good luck!